Revelations: The Tortured Ones
by HellAngel
Summary: Prologue: Faith is taken out of prison again, by a man shrouded in mystery for an unknown reason. But they quickly get sidetracked…
1. Introductions

Title: Revelations: The Tortured Ones

By: HellAngel

Summary: (Prologue) Faith is taken out of prison _again_, by a man shrouded in mystery for an unknown reason. But they quickly get sidetracked…

Spoilers: Every season.

Rating: M

Category: Action/Adventure/Angst/Romance

Distribution: I really don't care were you or anybody puts this up. Just drop me a line so I can take a look at your site.

Feedback: Always! I don't care if you flame me or not. Just to hear from people who read this, I know I struck a nerve!

Disclaimer: Joss Whedon owns and created all of the Buffy characters. I own the rights the original character and this computer though.

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Women's Correctional Facility

San Diego, California

June 14, 2007 8:00am

"Inmate Number D-4374," a female guard yelled into the cell.

The woman inside promptly sits up and bangs her head against the bed above her with an audible thud.

"What!" she said with gritted teeth.

"You have a visitor." And with that, the guard walks away from the cell.

The woman is visually irritated and slowly gets herself out of the bunk. Doing so she bangs head against the bed once again.

"Muthafucka!"

And without thinking, she punches the bunk above her, slightly bending the frame. After she lets her emotion run through her, she realizes what she had done and becomes very anxious. She gently removes her fist from the bent frame and then turns around to see anyone saw her feat of strength. She looks around for a few moments, but after scanning the rest of the cells for life she let out a sigh of relief.

'_Get a grip, Faith. You don't want to scare the warden now would we?_'

Faith gets out of the bed and walks over to a chair that has a pair of orange cover-alls.

_'This better not be a social call. This either has to be real important or whoever is better be male and fine as hell, because Big Bertha is looking pretty tasty.'_

She walks over to the sink to splash so water in her face and try to look presentable. A few more splashes of water in her face and she looks in the mirror.

"You can do this… You can do this…_sigh_," she whispered

She turns and walks up to the cell door and puts her hands through a hole.

"Guard!"

Faith waits a few moments, and then she feels cold steel on her wrists. Like all prisoners, Faith gets shackled when she is transported from the cellblock to the visitor's area. With her slayer-strength, she could easily break through cuffs and leg bindings. But she made a promise to Angel not to try and escape again.

That was then and this is now. She hated walking down the cellblock. With the taunting and banter from other cellmates and constant Billy club being pressed to her back, she never got used to it. But thing that she hated the most about being walked out of cellblock to the visitor's area was the strip and cavity search.

She never did get used to that.

It has been four years since she was picked up again and thrown in jail. When she first got there, the female guards raped her and did severe damage to her body to "welcome" her to the prison. And every time she had a visitor, she would have to go through cavity search and be reminded of her first day.

'_Faith, you can get through this… please get through this,_' she asked herself as a lone tear rolls off her cheek.

As they reach the visitor's area, a lanky man was standing outside of the search room holding a piece of paper. The man's appearance confused not only Faith, but the guard as well.

"Sir?" The guard acknowledges

The man seemed nervous, like he had seen a ghost. The guard lets go of Faith to shake her superior out of whatever daze he was in.

"Sir, snap out of it." The guard said as she slapped him lightly on the cheek

And with a jolt, he snaps in attention.

"Wha… Oh, it's you Simmons. I'll take the prisoner through." The warden said as he pulls Faith away from Simmons.

'_He's usually cocky and arrogant. He seems like he's seen a ghost._'

The warden quickly walks Faith through the search area, as the guards are showing signs of anger and confusion.

"Sir, the inmate must be searched."

Faith holds back a feeling of nausea as the warden stops in his tracks.

"Her lawyer has made it clear that if we search her again, he will make sure that we get the same treatment as our prisoners. So shut the fuck up and do as your told."

That brought a smile to Faith's lips, '_I never told Angel about what was going on here. And he never threatened officials with lawsuits or threats period. He must of grown some balls._'

The warden continues show Faith the way to the visitors room. With every inch closer to the door, Faith becomes very nervous.

_'Wait, it's 8:30 in the morning, what the fuck is Angel doing here this early in the morning. He normally doesn't show up before 8 o'clock at night to survive the trip. What if it's Watcher's Council? What if they're here to terminate me? What if…'_

Before she could finish her thought, they were at the secured door. A guard to the right of the door had a bag with the last name Lehane on it. The warden grabs the bag from the guard quickly and hands it carefully to the confused slayer.

"Faith, before you go, I would like to apologize for the treatment that you received here at this facility. For our action and the possibility of a lawsuit, the state of California is releasing you. Your lawyer is inside with the required paperwork you must fill out to be released. "

And with that said, the warden turns on his heels and quickly walks away. Leaving a very disoriented Faith in his wake to think of one person…

'_Angel_.'

With confidence, Faith opens the door to see her knight in shining armor.

"You know, Angel, you didn't have to scare… him…"

In mid-sentence, Faith realizes that the man that released her was not Angel. With the man's back to her, Faith calculated that the man was about 6'5", between 230 and 240 lbs, and at least 75 of the weight was muscle. He was wearing a black Armani three-piece suit with customized Oakley sunglasses. His hair, which was in a ponytail, was being reflected in the window light giving it a raven brown color. She looked down slightly to see his feet and smirked.

'_He's wearing a $6,000 suit and the shoe he picks are Lugz, very classy_'

The man turns around and looks at the prone slayer. She gasps with amazement. The man face was that of Egyptian and Greek decent.

'_I would like to thank God for this gift. Sending this delicious angel to my rescue_'

The man started to laugh, which confused the slayer.

"Thank you for your compliment and by the way, Lugz are comfortable."

Faith quickly goes on the defensive and gets into a fighting stance.

"What are you? Some kind of mind reader or somethin'?" Faith questioned

The man puts his hands in his pockets and starts walking towards the battle ready Faith. He gets three-feet in front of her and stops.

"I really don't have to if you say what you're thinking out loud." The man said with a smirk.

Faith realizes what's going on and begins to blush. The man cocks his head to side slightly.

"I never expected the rouge slayer to blush. You must be losing your edge, Faith."

She immediately goes back on the defensive, "How do you know who and what I am?"

"It's my job, Miss Lehane."

The man takes a seat and reaches for his inner pocket. With a doubtful look on her face, Faith takes a seat across from her savior. The man finally pulls a box of cigarettes out of his inner pocket and pulls one out for him. He looks at Faith then his box and with a smile he passes his cigs to the prone slayer.

"Your file said you were a smoker… and I think that's your brand." The man said in a "matter of fact" tone.

He reaches in his pant's pocket and pulls out a Zippo lighter. He hands her the lighter and Faith inspects it.

"I like the design. A little too religious for my tastes." Faith acknowledges as she strokes the cross design on the lighter.

"A friend of mine is a man of the cloth. He gave that to me as a gift for saving him from a 'incident.'" The statement peaked Faith's interest.

"So, you've seen some action?"

"I've seen my far share, Faith. But I'm not here to talk about me." The man stands up and walks over to Faith. "I bet your wondering who I am?"

"The thought had crossed my mind, handsome."

The man smirks and bends down to get her eye level.

"Are you always this shy?"

"Only to people I just meet." She leans closer to put an exclamation on her statement.

"Cute."

The slayer is taken aback for the man confidence, 'Who is this guy?'

"Your detainment was lifted by the lawyers at Wolframan & Hart for the use of your services."

'Those are the guys Angel is fighting against," Faith thought, "I'm not working for those creeps. Find yourself another slayer, buddy."

Faith stands up and walks over to the sealed door. The man starts to giggle at the situation.

"Faith, your free to leave at your on leisure. You have been released from prison." The man explains.

"Oh." Faith says dumbfounded. She motions for the door, but not before the man let's her know one small thing.

"By the way, the executive that placed the order is none other than your friend, Angel under the pleading of a certain ex-Watcher by the name…" The man looks opens a briefcase at his feet and pulls out a piece of paper, "…Rupert Giles"

Faith stops in her tracks and turns to the unknown stranger, "When… Where… How…"

"You're forgetting 'what and why." The man stated with a smile.

Faith slowly walks back to the table, very wary of the man sitting across from her, "Who are you and what do you have to do with Giles?"

"For starters, my name is Demitri Drake and…" Demitri looks at the exit door then back at Faith, "…Wouldn't you like to continue this conversation outside?"

Faith looks back at the sealed door, and then back at Demitri, "What about the paper work I have to do."

Demitri smiles and reopens his briefcase, pulling out the paperwork, "All you have to do is sign this page and you can walk out the door."

Demitri places the paperwork on the table, were Faith quickly picks up the pen and starts signing her name. But then she stops in the middle of signing and looks up at the well dressed man, "Are you sure there are no strings attached to this?"

Demitri shook his head and Faith looks back at the piece of paper with half of her signature on it, _'What's the worst that can happen?'_

She finishes signing her name and walks towards the exit. Demitri closes his briefcase and walks over to the door.

"Open the door!" Demitri yells to the outside.

As the door opens, Faith squints her eyes to adjust to light outside, when Demitri hands her a pair of glasses. She smiles slightly then quickly puts the glasses on.

When she finally was able to see, she noticed that the correction facility was in the middle of nowhere. Ahead of her she could see a masterpiece of a car.

She turns and looks at Demitri with a smirk, "What type of lawyer are you, D?"

Demitri doesn't answer her as quickly as she wanted and turned back around towards the car. When she reached the car, she began to carefully moving her hand across the recently polished classic.

"So do you like it, Faith?" Demitri said walking up behind her.

"Who can not like a 1958 Jaguar XK150 Roadster? You must pull in all types of pussy in this car?"

Demitri just smiles and moves over to the passenger's door and opens it for Faith.

"Thank you, kind sir." Faith says sarcastically.

Demitri closes the door and shakes his head; _'You said nothing about how annoying this slayer was going to be.'_

He walks over to his door and gets in the car. What Demitri doesn't notice is that Faith has not taken her eyes off her rescuer.

"So, are you going to answer my question? What type of _lawyer_ are you?"

Demitri starts the car then looks at the prone slayer. He tips his glasses ever so slightly, to make eye contact. Faith finally looks into the eyes of this mystery man and being to get hot under the collar. His eyes were an enchanting hazel with a tint of blue on the edge of the iris.

He leans in closer to her and she also leans expecting something that will let her release some _tension_.

"Who said I was a lawyer?"

Faith backs away from Demitri and let's out a sigh that she didn't know she was holding in.

"I need to get laid," Faith looks at Demitri with lust, "Any taker's?"

Demitri pushes his glasses back on top of the bridge of his nose and puts the car in gear, "You haven't been out of jail for more than ten minutes and already you're ready to find a leg to hump on."

"That depends on if that leg knows how to work the kinks out of a girl."

Demitri is starting to make the shaking of his head a trademark because with a shake of his head and a small smile, Demitri floors the pedal.


	2. Problems in Laguna Beach: Part 1

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Disclaimer: Joss Whedon owns and created all of the Buffy characters. I own the rights the original characters and this computer though.

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Hilton

Laguna Beach, California

June 15, 2007

12:00am

"Hey Jonathon!" Andrew calls over his walkie-talkie. He waits a few moments before calling again.

"Jonathon, pick up!"

"What is it, Andrew?"

"Look, damn it! I have been waiting here patiently for you, for an hour, to come back from break so I can take mine. So if you don't mind could you… hurry it up?"

There's a pause, "Dude, I'm in the middle of talking to a chick, would you mind?"

Andrew sighs, "If you consider that blow up doll a chick, then you can wait to talk to that "chick" later. Get your ass out here, man. I'm cold."

Andrew hears no response and smiles at his victory. Ever since him and Jonathon left Sunnydale with the their lives, they've tried to live normal job. Jumping from city to city, it seemed trouble followed them wherever they went.

When they made it to Oxnard, they tried to dabble in male stripping, but found that the club had become a haven for vampire activity. So as quickly as they arrived in Oxnard, they left. They then swallowed their pride (and fear) and got jobs helping Buffy find all of the potential slayers while based in Cleveland. But once the Hellmouth was destroyed and all the potentials were found, the entire group relocated to the old Watcher's Council Headquarters. After a couple of months, they felt they out lived their welcome and left England. When they made it in LA, they literally walked into supernatural war between vampires and mages. And in San Diego, they both ran into a succubus who made them turn on each other. So there self-exile has finally landed them in Laguna Beach with jobs as valets.

"God, I wish I stayed in England." Andrew says with a sigh.

Jonathon walks out of the hotel with an aggravated look on his face.

"A chick. Yeah right. Like that one time Buffy almost kissed you."

Jonathon was now staring daggers into Andrew, "You inconsiderate son of a bitch. I can't believe that you would say that over the walkie. If you ever…"

Jonathon stops mid-sentence when he looks at Andrew's face. He turns to look at what Andrew was staring at and sees _'the'_ gorgeous woman walking towards them.

She pulls out a pen and grabs Jonathon's hand, "Here's my number, cutie."

After she finishes writing her number, she kisses his cheek, "Call me."

As she walks away, Jonathon turn around with a smug look on his face to Andrew, who still has that far away look in his eyes.

"Andrew." That response gets no reaction from the prone Andrew. Jonathon then slaps his friend in the face… hard.

"Ow," Andrew begins to rub his face, "You lucky son of a bitch."

Jonathon breathes on his nails and rubs them on his vest, "Yeah… I know."

Andrew looks in the direction that the woman walked in, "Are there any women like her in the hotel?"

"Could be…"

Andrew, oozing with confidence, walks towards the entrance, leaving Jonathon shaking his head.

"They grow up so fast."

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"_JONATHON_!"

Jonathon is woken from is daydream by an annoyed Andrew.

"Dude, what the hell's your problem? I've been screaming your name for the last four minutes."

Jonathon looks around at his surroundings.

Demitri's Jaguar pulls up to the hotel's entrance with a roar. Faith is asleep in the passenger seat with the seat back.

Jonathon is the first to see the car and looks at Andrew. Andrew is staring right at him then glances at the car.

"It's mine," Andrew says as he begins to jog towards the car. Jonathon starts to catch up to him.

"Your on break, it's mine." Jonathon says between breaths.

"Forget my break, I'm looking at the best payday of the week," Andrew says as he inches farther from Jonathon. Jonathon then, ungracefully, kicks Andrew in the shin.

Andrew falls to the floor with a thump, "What the fuck, man?" Jonathon looks back at him and smiles. He turns around back at the car and sees Jeffrey, the hotel operator's son opening up the door to Demitri as he looks directly at Jonathon with an evil grin.

"Not today, motherfu…" and he sprints to the driver's side door and pushes Jeffrey out of the way. Demitri gets out of the car and looks down at the valet on the ground then back at Jonathon.

"Welcome to the Hilton, my name is…"

"You son of a bitch, you are so fired. Wait 'til my dad hears about this!" Jeffrey gets up, brushes himself off and then gives Jonathon the finger. By this time, Andrew is standing right next to Jonathon. Jeffrey is so into flipping them off that he doesn't see the curb in front of him and trips. Andrew laughs loudly.

Again, Jeffrey turns around and looks Andrew in the eyes, "Both of you are fired, assholes!"

Andrew begins to look around, "What the fuck did I do?"

Jonathon turns around to face a bewildered Andrew, "You laughed at the bosses son."

"That's the bosses son. I find it interesting that children with parents with a little power have a superiority complex. Sad, really because once their parents lose that power they will become what they hate…"

Jonathon and Andrew turn to face the well-dressed man behind them.

"What's that?" Jonathon asked

"Powerless," Demitri finishes as he extends his hand, "Demitri Drake and you are…"

Andrew is the first extend his hand, "Fired asshole number 1, Andrew Wells and to my left is fired asshole number 2, Jonathon Levinson."

Jonathon then shakes Demitri's hand. Demitri then pulls a cigarette out of a case that was in his breast pocket.

"I saw how driven you were to help me out of my car, so what's stopping you now," Demitri says as he lights his cigarette.

"What's the point, we are going to be fired anyway," Jonathon whines.

"You let me worry about that," Demitri says through the smoke.

Jonathon and Andrew quickly go to the trunk of the car and start unloading luggage.

"Why in the hell did you push Jeffrey, man? I mean we 'had' a good thing here. Why?" Andrew asked with some anger behind it.

Jonathon lets out an audible sigh, "Because I was tired of daddy's boy getting us in trouble for things we didn't do, not letting us get the biggest tips… do you want me to continue?"

"Naw, I'm cool," Andrew says as he pulls out the last of the baggage. And if on queue, the hotel operator walks out the glass doors with anger emanating out of his pours.

"Wells… Levinson… what the hell did you think you were doing? You don't lay a hand on any of the employees, especially my son. Who in the hell do you think you are? How stupid are you two, huh? If I had half a mind I would fire you but because you two would probably pull unemployment, I'm putting you on custodian duties until you quit." The hotel operator feeling happy with himself decides to turn and walk away with his son in tow.

Jeffrey turns around and looks at the two broken men, "My dad let you off easy but when I'm done with you, you're gonna pray that my dad fired you." With a smile he started to walk towards the door.

Demitri, who watched the berating of the two men, threw his cigarette butt on the ground and proceeded to walk towards the entrance of the hotel. As he opens the door he turns to Andrew and Jonathon slightly, "By the way can you help the young lady out of the car and bring her inside?"

And with a wink, he walks inside leaving the two men to do what may be their last task working for the Hilton.

"What do you think he's gonna do?" Jonathon asks pathetically.

"I don't know but he walked in there with a purpose."

"Hey, keep it down out there. People are trying to sleep in here."

Jonathon and Andrew freeze in their place.

"Um… Andrew did you hear what I heard?"

"Did you hear a raspy voice with a Boston accent?"

"Yeah?"

"Then yes, I heard what you heard."

They slowly turned around and saw the person that the voice came from.

"Hello, boys. What, no hug?" Faith said with a honey-laden voice.

Andrew yelped as Jonathon fainted. Faith steps out of the car, now wearing a t-shirt exposing her belly, tight fitting jeans and a leather jacket.

"Faith, you haven't lost your touch, my dear," Faith said as she walked passed Andrew and walked over Jonathon. She turns around and looks at Andrew, "Be sure to bring in the luggage after you faint."

Andrew smiles then faints. Faith grins and then proceeds inside the hotel, _'I wonder what Demitri is up too?'_

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Demitri catches up to the hotel operator and his son right before they enter the service elevator in the back of the hotel.

"Excuse me!" Demitri says as he walks up behind the two men.

The hotel operator is the first to turn around with a smile on his face, "Hello, sir. How may we help you today?"

"Can I get your name, sir?" Demitri asks casually.

"My name is Samuel and this is my son, Jeffrey." Both extend their hands towards Demitri, who receive them graciously.

"Are you two in a hurry? Because if you are, I will talk to you later." Demitri asking with an innocent tune.

"No, we always have time for our guests." Samuel said with a shit-eating grin on his face.

"Well, I couldn't help but notice the exchange that you had with your two valets outside," Demitri lied, "I have to know if that was company procedure to chastise them like that in front of guests?"

"Well if you should know…" Jeffrey could not finish his statement as his father smacks him in the back of the head.

"Jeffrey, two adults are talking…" Samuel turns his attention back to Demitri, "Well, sir… I can not allow the employees think that they can do whatever they want, so yes I believe that my actions were just."

"I see…" Demitri said with a smirk. If he did not have his sunglasses on, Samuel and his son would have seen the anger radiating out of his eyes.

Jeffrey, out of arrogance, decided to speak out of turn, "What you need to do _'sir,'_ is go about your business and leave the running of hotel to us professionals."

Instead of reprimanding his son, Samuel stands there with a look of pride on his face.

Demitri turns his attention to the younger of the two, "Is that so!" Demitri gets closer to the two with a change of posture and presence.

"Well, this is how it's gonna be…" Demitri pulls his glasses down the bridge of his nose so the two could see his eyes, "You are going to fire the two men at my car and they will not pull unemployment…"

The statement brought a smirk to the operators face, "You bet they won't…"

Demitri becomes even more menacing, "You will give them a $10,000 severance pay plus a hotel room for the next two days for pain and suffering that the two caused."

The operator and his son look at Demitri with confusion and then begin to laugh out loud.

"Who do you think you are… making demands like that? Do you know who you are talking too? Get out of my hotel!"

Jeffrey, who was over doing it on the laughing, begins to poke Demitri in the chest, "It's time for you to leave or we will be forced to call the police on you, so aaaaahhhhhh…"

Jeffrey's statement is interrupted when Demitri grabs his hand and begins to twist it in an inhuman direction, "It's not polite to poke someone."

Demitri turns to the operator as he shuffles over to the courtesy phone to notify security, hoping that Demitri doesn't see him.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Demitri threatens as he lets go of Jeffrey's hand, "because if you do, the authorities will never find your bodies."

Demitri walks up to Samuel, who is openly weeping, and looks him in the eyes, "And if they do find your bodies, they'll wish they never did."

And Demitri's eyes began to glow a red ember color with an equally red smoke coming from the pupils.

"Okay… Okay… I will give you anything you want, just do not kill me or my son." Samuel said through his weeping.

"What are you going to give them?"

"I will give Jonathon and Andrew $10,000 severance pay plus a two night stay here at the hotel in any room of there choosing."

Demitri just stares at Samuel for a moment and then begins to laugh just as loud as the two were just minutes ago.

"Why… are… you… laughing?" Samuel asks through his sniffling.

"Because," Demitri pulls out a tape recorder and rewinds it, "your word is bond."

And he presses play, "_I will give Jonathon and Andrew $10,000 severance pay plus a two night stay here at the hotel in any room of there choosing._"

"Now two things can happen… One, you'll do what you said or… two; I will send this to the Hilton headquarters. You would be brought up on charges of fraud and extortion and lose this precious job of yours. Your choice…"

Samuel nods his head then hangs his head in defeat. Demitri smirks then turns to head to the lobby, when Samuel stops him.

"Were you really going to kill us?"

Demitri snickers, "Like I would waste my time with you two," he looks Samuel up and down then at his son, "Two things… You need to teach your son some manners. His attitude is going to get you both killed one-day. And I think you need a change of pants."

And with that said, Demitri turns on his heels and walks away, leaving the hotel operator and his spoiled son to their own devices.

Samuel, feeling that Demitri wasn't coming back, walks over to his and helps him. He looks at his son for a moment and then smacks him in the back of the head.

"Why did you have to poke him?"

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Faith is standing in the middle of the lobby looking for Demitri. She notices that there is a lot of activity inside of the hotel for such a late night. What she doesn't notice are the lustful looks she is getting from the men in the lobby. Some of them even run into each other from looking at her.

Giving up she walks up to the registration booth to find a lone female customer service person there. Faith walks up to the booth and gets the girl's attention.

"Excuse me, missy… I need some assistance."

The girl stops typing on her computer and looks up at an irritated Faith.

"How may I help you?"

"I need to check into a room."

The rep starts to type into the computer, "What is the name on the reservation?"

"Demitri Drake."

The girl types in the name and gives a look of disapproval, "Sorry, there is no reservation under that name."

Faith sighs in frustration and then looks around. The lobby is getting filled with more and more people. Now there is now a line behind her.

Faith looks back at the rep with confusion, "Can I ask you a question?"

"Yes, miss?"

Faith rolls her eyes at the girls sweet persona, "Why are there so many people here?"

The girl looks around Faith and then looks back at Faith, "To be perfectly honest, I have no idea. Maybe they're here for a convention or somethin'"

Faith shakes her head at the reps ignorance and then she grins slightly, _'If this girl is as ditzy as she looks… maybe…'_

Faith looks up, "One more question and then I'm out of your hair," Faith says with the exact type of sweetness the rep has, "Have you seen this guy… He's about this high… with long hair… wearing an Armani suit?"

The girl's face lights up, "Oh god, you mean you came with that hottie that walk in here a couple of minutes ago?"

_'Bingo,'_ Faith thought, "Yeah he's my… brother?"

The questionable answers passes over the girl head, "He must have to beat down women with a stick… is he single?"

_'I wonder'_ Faith thought to herself.

Then the girl squeals with excitement, "There he is… Here act like I just said something real funny."

"What!"

"Please?"

_'Fuck me!'_

Not wanting to blow her cover she unwillingly forces a laugh out of her vocal cords. Demitri walks up, hearing the laughter, with a confused look on his face.

Demitri stops right next to Faith and begins to say something when Faith stops him, "Hey bro, aren't you tired from going to visit mom at the rest home."

Demitri looks at Faith with even more confusion until he looked more deeply into Faith's eyes, _'Oh what the fuck did she get me into?'_

After an awkward moment of silence, that did not go unnoticed by the female rep, Demitri finally speaks up, "Of course I'm tired, I'm the one who had to drive two hours straight," turns his attention to the girl, "This girl hasn't learned how to hold her bladder since we were kids."

Faith looks at him with anger and begins to blush.

"You're an asshole," Faith whispered.

Demitri grinned and turned his attention back to the receptionist, "So… your name is?"

The girl pointed at her nametag, "Jennifer."

"So what is a girl like you doing working in a hotel?"

"Well, when I left home…"

Faith tones out the flirting and turns back around to the entrance of the hotel to see more and more people stream into hotel, peaking her interest until a woman in line became impatient.

"Why don't you put a leash on your boyfriend and tell him to stop flirting with the lady! We all want to go to sleep!"

Faith's anger began to boil over, "Look here, bitch. We were here first, so do yourself a favor. Take yourself and your vibrator and go to another hotel.

The woman has a surprised look on her face then a look of disgust, "Well I never…"

Faith, in full take no name mode, turns to Demitri and pulls him down to her level, "You can fuck her later, just get me into the room or your going to experience the rest of the world as a eunuch."

"You know, you're cute when you're angry," Demitri whispered

Taken aback by the comment and let's go of Demitri's suit.

Demitri smiles and turns his attention back to the girl, "Before we were interrupted," he leans forward, "Could you do me a favor, Jennifer?"

Jennifer nods her head like she's in a trance.

"I need you to look up the name David Fredrick."

Jennifer again nods her head and begins to type the name in.

"I have two adjoined rooms for that name. Let me get your keys," Jennifer said with a dreamy voice. She doesn't lose eye contact until she gets to the key cards.

Faith whispers in his ear, "I think she likes you."

Demitri smirks and slightly turns to Faith, "Things don't seem to be so different for you."

Faith turns her head just enough to see that half of the men in the hotel are looking to her ass.

"I'm gonna have fun while I'm here," Faith says with seduction oozing out of her statement.

All Demitri could do is giggle. Once turns his attention back on Jennifer, she is working on the last key.

"Here you go, two room keys. Have a wonderful stay." Jennifer said still in the dreamy state she was in.

Demitri takes the key card and flashes it in front of Faith's face and without hesitation grabs the key, "Thank you, god. Finally a bed that is actually soft."

Faith starts for the elevators, when she abruptly stops and turns to Demitri, "What room am I in?"

"Room 512," Jennifer coined in.

Faith nods and heads back towards the elevators.

Demitri waves at Faith and looks back at Jennifer, "Siblings… can't live with them… can't kill them."

Jennifer giggles a little and hands Demitri his key card. He takes the card and begins to walk back out to the entrance, when Jennifer speaks up.

"My shift ends in about an hour. If you would like, I could meet you at your room."

Demitri flashes a sad smile, "Sorry sweetie," Demitri raises his left hand with a wedding ring is located, "I'm married…"

"Oh," Jennifer said with heartache.

"I didn't mean to lead you on but you seemed to need someone to build your self-esteem up."

Jennifer smiles and Demitri returns it. With one last look, he walks out of the hotel.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Jonathon and Andrew came out of their daze a couple of moments after Faith had gone inside of the hotel. They had tried to lift some of the luggage in the back of the trunk but it wouldn't budge.

"What the hell does he have in here… an anvil?" Jonathon asked, "Why don't you give it a try?"

Andrew pushes Jonathon out of the way and tries to lift it himself but the bag doesn't cooperate, "What the fuck is in this?"

Andrew looks around to see if anybody is looking, "Hey, watch out for that guy."

Jonathon nods and becomes Andrew's lookout. Andrew begins to unzip the bag and sees some metallic objects inside. But as he tries to further open the bag, he feels a hand on his shoulder.

Andrew quickly zips up the bag stands straight to see that Demitri's the one that placed the hand on his shoulder.

"I have a feeling that it's against company policy to snoop through customer's personal belongings," Demitri said with a smile.

Andrew looks confused, "Your not mad?"

Demitri laughs a little, making Andrew feel a little more comfortable, "A little curiosity never killed anyone."

Andrew grins then begins to look around, "Where's Jonathon?"

Demitri looks down and Andrew follows suit to find Jonathon has again passed out. Andrew starts to laugh as he slaps his friend wake up.

"…Don't do that, mommy," Jonathon mumbled as he opened his eyes to see a very scared look on his friend's face.

"Something's wrong with you kid," Demitri coined with the same smile on his face. Demitri helped Andrew pick Jonathon up off the ground.

"Just for your information, I had a talk with your boss wants to see you immediately after your done with the luggage." Demitri stated as he head back inside of the hotel.

Jonathon stands there with a frightening look on his face, "Are we fired?"

"Most definitely fired, but I made sure that your time here is well spent," Demitri said with a smile and walked inside.

Andrew starts to scratch his head, "Who the hell is that guy?"

Jonathon just shrugs and begins to put the bags in the pushcart.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Demitri walks down the hallway of the fifth floor and notices a couple walking past Faith's room with shocked looks on there faces that then turned to smiles.

"They sound like they're having a good time," the man said as they walked past a grinning Demitri, "Why don't you sound like that when we…" the sound of the man getting slapped ends the man' statement.

Demitri walks up to the door and puts his ear to the door and listens to the sounds of passion coming from Faith's room. He glances over and sees a food tray next to the door. He shakes his head and sighs, "Well, I guess he's getting some good over time."

He walks over to his room's door and quickly opens it. When he closes the door, he notices the sounds coming from Faith's room are completely muffled.

_'Thank god for sound proof walls,'_ Demitri thought as he took off his jacket. The space was well equipped with a bar and balcony. The living room was state of the art with a flat screen television with a surround sound system that complements the room. He began to take off his tie as he walked into the master bedroom. Then there was a knock on his door.

"Just a minute," Demitri yells as he takes off his dress shirt to expose not only his black wife beater but also the massive amount of tattoos all over his arms and shoulders. The majority of the tattoos were of tribal symbols but a few had some type of religious and symbolistic importance.

Demitri opens the door to see only Jonathon standing there. Demitri is about to ask Jonathon were his counterpart is, when Jonathon points to his left. Demitri sticks his head out the door to find Andrew with his ear pressed next Faith's door.

Demitri clears his throat and Andrew quickly straightens and looks over at Demitri, who now has his arms crossed.

"Give me a break. I'm only human," Andrew says as he walks into Demitri's room.

Jonathon watches Andrew walk in then looks at Demitri, "I think we need to talk." Demitri motions for Jonathon to walk in then closes the door. Jonathon sits down the couch in the living room as Demitri heads back to the master bedroom.

"How in the hell are you able to afford this?" Andrew asked nervously, "I mean Jesus… what did this run you $500… $600,000?"

Demitri walks back out with two folders in his hand, "$1.5 million for two rooms for seven days. And that covers everything, including…" Demitri looks in the direction of Faith's adjoining room, "Room service."

Demitri then throws the two folders on the table in front the two men, "Read them."

Both Jonathon and Andrew cautiously pick up the folders and begin to read their contents. After a few moments, they both have a bewildered look on their faces. Andrew is the first to speak, "Where did you get this information?"

"This information was faxed to me by Rupert Giles." Demitri stated matter-of-factly.

Andrew looks back down at the file as Demitri sits down in front of them. Jonathon looks like he had seen a ghost, "What are you going to do with us?"

Demitri pulls a cigarette of his pocket and lights it, "It seems that you two have a lot to amend for, but to answer your question, I going to send you back to England to finish mending your pasts."

"Hey, we both did our duty and helped Buffy. I hated looking at Willow and remembering that we had something to do with her girlfriend getting killed. So, my choice was to leave England and try to live a normal life."

"And you both failed miserably. Ever since you left England, you have had nothing but trouble follow you." Demitri exhales the smoke from his lungs before he continues, "Once you left England, things got hairy for you. So hairy, that you had to call on the services of Wolfram & Hart. Luckily, Angel was in charge of the law firm and he had the price taken off your head."

"How did you know about that?" Jonathon asks with anger behind it.

"It seems once you left the Watcher's Council, they made sure that someone kept tabs on you. I guess it could be some type of fail safe plan to make sure that you two don't try to come up with any more bright ideas for world domination."

Both Jonathon and Andrew stand up with rage, "Look here, you son of a bitch, that was Warren's idea. He's the one that wanted to rule the world. We just went for the ride."

Jonathon puts his two cents in, "He's the one that shot Tara, not us. Why should we go back and have all those look down on us like we are useless?"

Seeing that the conversation was going downhill, Demitri stands up to put them back in their place, "Look here, boys… I would not have come here if Rupert didn't ask for you two specifically. Now, if I was the bad guy, you wouldn't have those fat checks in your back pockets, so my suggestion is you sit down and shut up."

The two men do what they are told and Demitri walks over to the bar, "What are you drinking?"

"Whiskey Sour." Andrew piped up.

Jonathon thinks for a moment, "Can I get a Pepsi?"

Demitri makes both of their drinks and hands it to them, "Now I want you to understand that you guys are needed in this upcoming war."

Jonathon spits out his drink, "War?"

Andrew swallows his drink to fast and begins to cough violently, "What do you mean war?"

"To be honest, I have no clue what war Rupert is talking about but I can guarantee that it is going to be big." Demitri answers as he watches the two men drink.

Jonathon finishes his drink and then looks at Demitri, "Can I ask you a question?"

Demitri nodded, "What is Faith doing here? She wasn't in Cleveland when we showed up? What happened to her?"

Demitri shook his head, "You are going to have to ask her. The file that I got on her was just that she was in jail and she had to be broken out of it."

Andrew looks up in shock, "You mean she is a fugitive?"

Demitri smiles and shakes his head, "No, she is legally free from jail."

Jonathon and Andrew both nod their heads and an awkward silence follows until Andrew breaks it, "So what are we supposed to do now?"

Demitri stands up out of his chair and walks back to the bar and picks up another folder, "Tomorrow, at midnight, you will take a flight to New York," Demitri walks over and hand the two tickets, "From JFK, you will go to this address," he gives them both a piece of paper with the address, "The man there is a friend of mine, just tell him who you are and he will let you in."

Demitri hands them a card, "This is the key card to club in New York called 'The Flaming Sword'. Go inside and look for a woman by the name Samantha. She will give you directions from there."

"Aren't you coming with us?" Jonathon asks.

"We will meet you there. It seems that the slayer has been out of practice as of late, so Rupert wants me to make sure that when we arrive in England, she is at her peak."

"What happens if we get in trouble?" Andrew asks fearfully.

Demitri pulls out his wallet and hands them another card, "If you are in dire straits, call this number. They're friends of mine and they have been put on alert."

Jonathon and Andrew nod in compliance then they head for the door. Demitri watches them walk out of his room with a look of fear, 'I think I need to make a phone call…'

-------------------------------------------------------------

Jonathon and Andrew head towards the elevator when Andrew stops them, "Why don't we just leave? He'll never find us."

Jonathon turns to him with a look of frustration, "That's what you said last time, but look we were found. Remember Andrew; the past always has a way of finding you. It found me in the worst way, remember? Look, it's late and I'm going to my room. We have a long day tomorrow and I need as much sleep as possible."

The chime of the elevator goes off and the doors open. The two walk into the elevator when Andrew erupts, "You're a fucking sheep, you know…"

Jonathon has had enough, "Look… all my life, I was over looked and I even tried to commit suicide to try get people to notice me. Because of my 'following' of Warren, I was indirectly responsible for the death of a human being. Because of my 'following' you, I was put at death's door on more than one occasion. This is the first time that I feel that the person I am following has an agenda that will help me become more of a man. I glad I am needed because that gives me a purpose. Maybe it's time you realize the same thing and grow the fuck up."

The elevator door opens and the two walk out. Andrew doesn't even look in Jonathon direction as he goes into his room. Jonathon opens the door and stands in awe of the room, "Someone pinch me."

He then feels a pinch on his back. Jonathon jumps at the pain and turns to find Andrew behind him, "What do you want?"

Andrew sighs, "What time do we get up tomorrow?"


	3. Problems in Laguna Beach: Part 2

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Disclaimer: Joss Whedon owns and created all of the Buffy characters. I own the rights the original characters and this computer though.

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The Watcher's Council

Living Quarters – Rupert Giles

London, England

June 15, 2008

9:50am

Rupert Giles, senior member of the new Watcher's Council, looks on out the window, with tea in hand, watching the slayers training in the yard. For the last five years, him and his 'children' have repaired the pieces of rubble that was once the headquarters into a newly engineered, high-tech training and research facility.

With Xander and others finding potentials everyday, things have been looking up for the former Watcher… until recently.

A few weeks ago, Giles received a distressing call from Kennedy. She claimed that Willow sensed something was brewing through all of the Hellmouth's in the world. She tried to find the source of the disturbance but she was knocked unconscious for three days and just woke up that day. Giles brushed it off as Willow tapping into something small until Xander called saying he "saw" something happening to all the Hellmouth's.

That's when he called Angel and asked him to get Faith out of prison. Giles had heard that Faith had gotten herself back in prison and neither he nor Robin Wood, now a Watcher, went to get her out. Angel got the paper work together but could not serve the paperwork due to another job he was working on. Giles then called in Demitri to take Faith out of jail and bring her to London for the forthcoming battle.

Giles looking on at "his" slayers with despair, not knowing what to do if they have to battle The First or something bigger. Giles is so into his thoughts, that he doesn't see Buffy coming up behind him

"Giles?" Buffy asks

Giles jumps at the sound of Buffy's voice, spilling his tea, "Bollix… Hot, hot, hot! Damn, this was a new vest."

Giles sprints over to the table in the middle of the room and grabs a Kleenex. He quickly begins to clean off the tea from his vest. He notices Buffy trying horribly to hold in laughter.

"This is not funny, Buffy. I could have been severely burned," Giles says in a very a fatherly tone.

"Your right… not funny… this is me not laughing," Buffy says as she still tries to hold in laughter, "So what made you space out this time."

Giles finishes wiping himself off and walks back to the window. Buffy follows him with a worried look on her face.

"Remember, I told you that Kennedy called about the energy disturbance that Willow felt?" Giles asked without looking at Buffy.

"Yeah… I thought we agreed that it was just Willow stressing herself out about nothing. Remember she has done that before."

"Yes…" Giles pulls off his glasses and starts cleaning them, "But I also got a call from Xander and he said he "saw" the same things that Willow sensed."

Buffy has a look of confusion, "Why didn't you tell me this information? What… you don't trust me after everything we have gone through?"

"Buffy, I did not want to alarm you until we have researched the importance of this."

Buffy begins to pace, "So how bad is this thing we are about to face?"

Giles places his glasses back on the bridge of his nose, "Buffy, I can honestly tell you I have no clue on who or what we are dealing with or how powerful this thing is."

Buffy stops pacing and looks at Giles with a worried look, "What can I do to help?"

Giles smiles and grabs Buffy on the shoulders, "The only thing that you can do is act like nothings wrong and go about your life so the others don't worry. Remember, you are their leader and the attitude of the girls reflects leadership."

Buffy nods and hugs Giles. Buffy is the first to release the embrace and walks away. But before she is completely out of sight, she turns to Giles one last time, "When was the last time you heard from Xander?"

"Last Wednesday, if I'm not mistaken."

Buffy nods and smiles, but before she turns to walk out the door, Giles' cell phone goes off. Buffy walks out the door but stops so she was out of sight but not out of earshot. Giles opens his flip phone to see a restricted number.

"Rupert Giles speaking."

"Ripper…" The voice said on the other line.

Giles swallows hard, "Demitri… It's good to hear from you."

"Drop the act, Ripper. We have business to attend too."

Giles sighs, "Quite right… Do you have Faith?"

_'What the hell does he want with Faith?'_ Buffy ponders to herself.

"Yes, I have your precious slayer. She is quite the feisty one. Faith has some trusting issues… care to elaborate on that."

Giles walks over to a table on the far left wall and sits down, "For now, it is not a factor on your assignment. So what is the necessity for this call?"

There is silence on the other line for a few moments, "We might have a problem out here."

"What kind of problem?"

"We are located at a hotel here in Laguna Beach and to my understanding, there has been an influx of people from the town that have relocated here in the hotel."

"I still don't see the problem."

"Do you have a television were you are at?"

Giles spins chair to the wall to his right and turns on a television to CNN.

The newscaster is sitting at the desk with his hand to his ear, "Sorry for the delay… We have just got some information from the states. We now go live to field report Thomas Henry… Thomas…"

The reporter stands there for a moment because of the satellite delay, "Thank you, Anthony… We have just been informed by the Laguna Beach Police Department, that the 24th missing persons report was just turned in about three minutes ago. These missing person reports started about eight days ago. The police believe that this is the work of a serial killer. The people have been leaving the city in drones not knowing…"

Giles turns off the television and takes off his glasses, "It's starting."

"Ripper, what the hell is going on? What's starting?" Demitri asks with anger in his voice.

Giles now begins to clean his glasses, "It is not your job to worry about what going on around here, remember? Isn't that what you said?"

"Look here, boy… You will give me whatever information that is necessary to survive," Demitri said through gritted teeth, "And without this knowledge, your precious slayer may end up one of those missing people."

Giles quickly stands up and starts to crush his glasses in his hand, "If you as much as touch a strand of hair on her head, I'll…"

"Ripper, you know that is not how I operate. Once I am paid, I will not stop until the job is complete but remember your slayer is out of practice. And I can't be in two places at once."

Giles sits back down and opens his hand to find a broken pair of glasses stained with his blood. Giles sighs again, "I'll send a few slayers your way to help assist with the problem."

Giles hears a laugh on the other side of the phone, "Have you forgotten who you are talking too? Faith and I will handle whatever is here but you can do something for me…"

"And what could that be?"

"I want you to get a hold of one of your contacts that you had tailing Andrew and Jonathon and get them to find the radius of were the attacks are centered."

Giles is now letting the blood flow freely from his wound, "I will contact them and get that information to you in the next few hours."

"Nice doing business with you… Rupert. And by the way, how long have you known that Faith was in jail?"

"The whole time, why?"

"Nothing, just curious." And with that, Giles hears a click on the other line. Giles places the phone down and looks up to see Buffy coming around the corner from her hiding place.

Buffy, at first played innocent and then she looks at his hand to see it bleeding. She jogs over to where he was and tends to his hand.

Giles looks down at his 'daughter' and grins, "I guess I let my anger get the best of me, didn't I?"

Buffy looks up, "You look like you went all Ripper mode during that conversation…"

Giles grabs the bridge of his nose with his good hand, "How long were you eavesdropping on my discussion?"

"As soon as you answered the phone," Buffy said innocently.

Giles stands up and begins to pace, while blood is still seeping out of the wound. Buffy looks at Giles with concern, noticing he has not nurtured his cut hand.

"Giles should I get the first aid kit?"

Giles does not respond to her, so she leaves to get the kit. When she returns, Giles is still pacing like a madman. Buffy, with kit in hand, grabs Giles and sits him down.

"If you don't mind me asking why have you gone Uncle Scrooge?" Buffy asked.

Giles is knocked out of his daze, "I don't get your meaning."

"DuckTales… it was a cartoon… oh, never mind. What has got under your skin?"

Giles places his hand on his forehead, "Faith is not ready to take on a nest at this time, whether he is with her or not."

"Who is with Faith?"

Giles looks at Buffy, "His name Demitri and he is more than capable of taking care of himself."

"Then why are you worried? You could send a few of us to take care of the problem, no sweat?"

"He consider it disgraceful to send anyone to help him. He works better alone, like you think you can."

Buffy looks confused, "Then why send him to get Faith, why not send me, Wood, Xander or even Angel?"

Giles shakes his head, "Because with my experience with Demitri, he will make sure that Faith acts accordingly. And plus, he will trainer her better than I ever could."

"You seem to have a lot of respect for this man."

"It's more fear than respect…" Giles trailed off into a mumble, irritating Buffy.

"So what's the plan?" Buffy asked

Giles puts his glasses back on and looks at Buffy with confidence, "Demitri, as unpredictable his nature is, I believe he can handle whatever problems arise in Laguna Beach."

"And if he decides to go against the deal, he will learn not to mess with us slayers," Buffy says as she heads out of the door and before Giles is able to protest she exits his room.

_'That went well…'_ Giles thought as he also walked out of his room.


	4. Problems in Laguna Beach: Part 3

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Disclaimer: Joss Whedon owns and created all of the Buffy characters. I own the rights the original characters and this computer though.

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Hilton

Laguna Beach, California

June 15, 2007

4:35pm

Faith wakes up with a jerk. Forgetting her surroundings or what she did last night, she rolls over and advertly hits the hotel employee in the head with her forearm. Her 'late night guest' groans and rolls over. Faith sits up and looks around, very confused.

'_All right, I'm in a, what looks like, a very expensive room. There is a very young looking man lying next to me…'_ she pauses her thought and looks under the sheet that is covering her nakedness, _'…and I'm naked. What the hell did I do last night?'_

She looks down at the young man and a sultry grin arises on her face, _'How many time did we do it?'_ Before she could ponder that thought, the adjoining room door opens to reveal a grinning Demitri standing at the doorway with his arms crossed.

"Good morning, slayer. I hope you didn't break the poor kid," Demitri said as he walked over to a table and picks up a chair.

Faith is looking at awe as Demitri walked passed her. He is still wearing the black wife-beater from last night and some black track pants. Most of is hair is tucked behind his ears except for a couple of strands draped over his eyes.

'_Dear brain, remind me to thank Angel for sending me this perfect specimen.'_ Faith thought as she unconsciously licked her lips.

Demitri spins the chair around and straddles the chair, "Did you even get his name?" Demitri looks around and turns his attention to the door. The scene looked like a map of lust to the man's eyes. Next to the door was a ripped shirt and pants to boot. The only thing missing was the shoes until he looked down at the end of the bed to see the still on had them on.

"It looks and _'sounded'_ like the kid was raped." Demitri mentioned as he looked around.

"I didn't hear him complain and besides I was horny. I haven't had any since Sunnydale went up in smoke. You go to jail for almost four years and you tell me." Faith said visibly irritated.

Demitri just stares at her, _'I can't blame her plus I doubt any man could resist a woman literally throwing herself on them.'_

Faith's irritation slowly seeped away as she looked at Demitri, who was in deep thought, _'I must be losing my edge. Every time look him…'_

"Get up and get dressed, we have things to deal with before we leave the city."

Faith is knocked out of her train of thought and stands up, forgetting for a moment that she naked. Demitri, for the first time gets a good look at the naked slayer, _'Not bad.'_

Faith, now not caring, walks past Demitri, lightly brushing her arm against his shoulder. He just sits there with a smirk on his face. She continues to the bathroom until she gets to the doorframe and turns around to face Demitri, "Could you tip the kid for me? I would but…" she rubs her thighs sensually, "I have no pockets."

"Faith… take your shower." Demitri said without looking at the slayer.

Faith looked hurt, _'He didn't even turn around.'_ She turns and walks into the bathroom with slam of the door.

Demitri turns and looks at the bathroom door and smiles, "Very nice."

Demitri gets off his chair and places it back next to the table. He then turns his attention to the hotel employee, who was still asleep. He walks over and shakes the kid awake.

"Mmm… use that tongue, girl." The kid moaned as he slowly woke up. The kid was startled when he found he was staring up at the well-toned man.

"Who are you?" The kid asked.

"Don't worry about it, kid. Last night was your lucky night." Demitri said with a smile.

"That was the best tip I have ever got."

Demitri looks down at the tattered clothes on the ground, "Well it seems your clothes are beyond repair. Hopefully you have spare clothing some where, kid"

The kid looks down at his clothes and back at Demitri, "Yes, sir. Down in my locker."

Demitri nods and looks around. He finds a robe hanging off the door and hands it the kid. He quickly puts it on and heads for the door.

"Hold it." Demitri exclaimed.

The young hotel employee stops in his tracks waiting for the worst.

"What's your name, kid?"

"Franklin, sir."

Demitri smiles and digs in his pocket. The kid closes his eyes and thinks of the worst until Demitri grabs his hand. The kid opens one of his eyes and looks down at the wad of cash in his hand.

"What's this for, sir?" The kid asked nervously.

"That's you're your actual tip, kid. I'm glad you were able to lose your virginity to that woman. She seems to have a reputation of breaking cherries."

"How did you know I was a virgin?"

Demitri gives him a 'are you shitting me' look, "Stop asking questions and get going."

Without another word, the kid opens the door and runs out the room.

-------------------------------------------------------------

_20 Minutes Later…_

Faith finished her shower and got dressed in an empty room. Feeling loneliness creeping up on her she picked up the cell-phone that Demitri had gotten her the day before. She dials a number and presses send. She waits a few moments and then she rolls her eyes.

"Fuckin' voice mail," Faith sighs.

"Hey, you have just reached my voice mail. Please leave your name and number. I'll get to it as soon as possible. Peace."

"Wasup, Wood… It's good to hear your voice… This is Faith by the way. I just called to let you know that I was released from prison yesterday. So, you know, call me back when you get this message. Late."

And with the closing of the cell-phone, the call was ended. Faith feels a tear roll down her eye and wipes it away.

"Girl, you're getting soft. First, you go gah-gah over some guy like a cheerleader with a crush. Then you cry over some guy who may have gotten on with his life. Get a grip."

With those last words, she falls to the floor and lets the tears flow. She grabs her knees and begins to rock back and forth. From the adjacent door, stands Demitri looking down at the Slayer with pain in his eyes.

"The pain of one individual is felt by everyone, whether it be directly or indirectly." Demitri quoted under his breath.

Demitri quietly closed the door and let the Slayer let out four and a half years of pain.

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Hilton

Laguna Beach, California

June 15, 2007

10:00pm

Faith wakes up very slowly on the bed and begins to contemplate on how she got there until she looked at the balcony window. Demitri was standing on the balcony, smoking cigarette, and watching the evening lights.

Faith gets out of bed, walks over to the balcony window, and taps. Demitri opens the window without turning around, allowing the Slayer out. She leans on the balcony wall and lets out a sigh.

"What time is it?"

Demitri lifts up his arm and looks at his watch, "It's 10:04."

Faith turns to look down at the lights below, "How did I end up on the bed?"

"You cried your self to sleep. After about an hour, I came in and put you in your bed."

Faith turns to him with a genuine smile, "Thanks."

Demitri finally turns his attention to the misguided soul, "For a woman who has gone through hell, you put up a very good front."

A sad smile creeps on the face of Faith, "From everything I have gone through in my life, I have too."

Demitri looks at her with pain in his eyes then back at the lights below, "From my experience, if you allow the past to dictate your actions in the present, then your life will slowly spin out of control."

Faith snickers, "Sometimes, I wonder if I'm talking to you or G-Man."

"G-Man?"

Faith laughs, "That's Giles' nickname. Xander gave it to him."

"You mean the man who lost his eye to Caleb."

Faith looks at him with a look of shock, "How do you know about that?"

Demitri smiles a bit, "Your Watcher gave me files on everyone who is associated with Giles. Well, everyone alive."

'_I've got to find away to look at those files.'_ Faith thought as she walked back into the room.

Demitri followed suit and went back in the room, "So, how are you feeling now?"

Faith flops down on the easy chair in front of the TV and exhales, "Five by five, D."

Demitri nods then walks over to the TV and turns it on, catching the last of the newscast.

"…So to remind people, the curfew has been set to 11:00pm. Anyone caught outside during the curfew, will spend night in jail. Again, the curfew… We've just got word that the mayor's 10 year old son has been kidnapped from their…"

Demitri turns off the TV before all of the information is given. Demitri looks at Faith, who is looking at Demitri with confusion.

"We have to go." Demitri said matter-of-factly as he walks to the adjacent door.

"What are you talking about? Go where?"

Demitri stopped at the door to his room, "Look, I'm only going to say this once more. We have to go… now!"

Faith winced at his tone, then followed him to his room, "Who in the fuck do you think you are talking too?"

Demitri turns and looks at Faith deadest eyes, "Look here, slayer. You want answers… then you grab your shit and head down to the car. And if you don't move your ass, I will move it for you."

Faith was about to retaliate until she saw his eyes. They were cold with no emotion, frightening her to the core.

Without another word, she goes back into her room and grabs her stuff, _'Somethin' goin' on around here and its get D on edge. Whatever it is, I wouldn't want to be in its shoes.'_

Faith packs her things and heads down the hall to find many of the hotels patrons standing around, extremely nervous.

"Did you hear about the mayor's son? Taken from their own home. What the hell is going on?" A male patron rambled on.

"It doesn't make since, we haven't had anything like this happen for the last four years. The only thing that happens in this town now a days are people going klepto," a woman mentions.

Faith walks past the frightened people and into the elevator. She looks out the elevator window to see many car headlights in the hotel parking lot leaving.

'_Something's got them spooked. But what?'_ Faith questions herself as the elevator doors open. She found herself in the middle of chaos. The hotel is crammed full of people coming and going. People were getting trampled including a seven-year-old girl who was crying for her mom. Faith rushes in and pushed some of the people out of the way.

"Move it, lard ass," Faith said to a very wide man as she pushed past him to get the little girl.

The heavy man didn't take Faith words lightly and pushed the slayer to the ground, "Who in the hell are you calling lard ass, toothpick?"

Faith is about to get up when she sees Demitri behind the man with the little girl on his arm. The fat man notices Faith's attention was diverted to a person behind him. The man turns around to find Demitri staring holes into him.

"What the fuck do you want?"

Demitri just grabs the man's shoulder and shoves him out of the way with out any effort, which Faith noticed. Demitri, with the little girl in hand, picks up Faith and head towards the door.

When they get outside, they find a woman and a man screaming for their daughter. Demitri leaves Faiths side and puts the girl back down on the ground. The little girl grabs on to Demitri's hand as he maneuvers through the crowd getting in and out of the hotel.

Demitri looks down at the little girl, "Is that your mother?"

The little girl looks through the crowd and sees the man and woman screaming for their daughter. The girl nods her head and they both walk up to the couple. When the mother saw her child, she ran up and picked her up off the ground.

"I was so worried you were kidnapped," the woman said through tears, "Where were you honey?"

The little girl pointed to inside the hotel and then she pointed to Demitri, "He helped me."

Demitri smiles at the little girl and then to her mother. Both the mother and father mouth thank you to Demitri and with a wink he begins to walk away.

Faith watches the interaction between him and the little girl and something clicks, _'He was wiggin' out when he heard about the mayor's son going missing. And with this little girl…'_ Faith is knocked out of her train of thought when Demitri grabs her arm.

"We have to go," Demitri said sternly. Faith picks up her bags and heads to the car. Demitri takes her bags and throws them into the trunk and opens Faith's door.

"Always the gentlemen, D?" Faith asks playfully.

Demitri gives the same dead look as when they were up in the room. Faith believing that if she said something else would anger the man in front of her she gets into the car.

Demitri gets in to the car and they tear off into the darkness.

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North Coast Highway

Laguna Beach, Ca

June 15, 2007

11:10pm

Faith and Demitri drive in silence until Faith notices they are going to the out skirts of Laguna Beach. Faith, getting very frustrated, turns to Demitri.

"Look here, you bipolar son of a bitch… You need to tell me what is going on around here or you can let me off now."

Demitri quickly pulls off the road and gets out of the car. Faith follows suit and steps out of the car prepared to start walking.

Demitri moves to the trunk of the car and opens it. Faith preparing to have her bags thrown at her is surprised when Demitri passes her a titanium stake.

Faith looks at the stake and then at Demitri with confusion, _'What is going on here?'_

Demitri dips back down into the trunk and flips a switch to reveal a numeric touch pad. He presses the numbers 2055 and a latch opens up revealing an arsenal.

Demitri turns to an awe-struck slayer, "It seems for the last four days, people have been going missing, if you haven't noticed. As of 10:30 tonight, there is twenty-five people missing from their homes. I called Giles last night and let him know about this development. He had the individual that was tailing Jonathon and Andrew find out if the missing persons were that of a supernatural nature. He called and told me there was a vampire hive here in town."

Faith rolls her eyes, "I haven't been out of prison more than twenty-four hours and I have to deal with this."

Faith then begins to ponder something, "What a sec… The people in this town must've had somethin' like this before. A woman at the hotel said they haven't had any disappearances like this for about for years," and then it hits her like a Mack truck.

"Four years ago, Sunnydale's Hellmouth was destroyed."

"Not only that but a year later, the senior partners were reduced to one member. From what Giles sent me, the vampiric activity around the Hellmouth dwindled down to one incident happening every year, in which he sent a slayer to take it out. Something's made vampiric activity sky rocket."

Faith looks around at her surroundings, "So what's the plan then?"

"We find the hive and take it out. Find the child and any other survivors and get them to safety."

Demitri closes the trunk and heads to the car door when he stops. Faith looks at Demitri for a moment when realizes why Demitri stops. A drop of water falls on Faith's hand, which makes her look up. Clouds quickly cover the moon.

"And the land will be showered with the tear's of fallen angels," Demitri whispers to himself.

Faith looks up at the sky and sighs, "Things can't get any worse."

Red and blue lights flash at the pair.

"Fuck!"

Demitri looks at his watch to see that it was now 11:15pm, past the city's curfew. Faith looks at Demitri with fear, '_Threat or no threat, I'm not going back to jail.'_

Demitri turns to Faith, "Don't say a word. I'll handle this."

Two male police officers get out of the vehicle and walk up two the potential troublemakers.

"Good evening," one officer said.

"Good evening, officer. Is there something I could do for you?" Demitri decided to play this straight. Last thing he needed was trouble. Faith notices how tense the officers are as they walk towards them.

"Can I ask where were you heading?" The other officer asked as he pulled out his baton. Demitri and Faith notice this and become defensive.

"We were heading into town but my engine stalled. I was about to check the engine when it started to rain."

The officer closest to Faith began to circle around her with a menacing look.

"The city is now under martial law. There have been many disappearances in the county. You wouldn't know anything about that would you?" The officer with the baton asked, as he got closer.

Demitri stands his ground and is about to answer when Faith pipes up, "It's like he told you. We were on our way into town, when the car died. Now if you don't mind, we're getting wet and we would like to get to someplace that is dry."

"Was I talkin' to you?" The officer yelled. He turns his attention back to Demitri, whose attention was on the other officer that was now behind the rogue slayer.

"So are you going to answer me, sir?"

Demitri looks back at the officer and then tilts his head to the side, "My sister and I are heading in town to see our mother. We had no clue about the missing persons thing, but I do have a question for you officer."

"And what would that be, sir?"

Demitri smirks a little bit, "What happened to the cops that you stole those uniforms from? Did you turn them or did you suck them dry"

The officer's smile went to amazement and then the facial features went demonic. The officer behind Faith was about to bit down on her neck when quickly was reduced to ash. Faith turns around see the vampire in cop clothing pounce onto Demitri. Demitri uses the vampire's momentum and launches him, landing with a thud behind Demitri, dropping his baton.

Demitri nips up and turns to the fallen vampire. Grabbing him by the neck, Demitri drags the vampire to hood of the cop car. Demitri holds the vampires neck and turns his attention to the awe-struck slayer.

"Faith… stake!"

Faith cautiously walks to Demitri and hands him the stake. Demitri quickly grabs the stake and slams it in the middle of the abdomen, pinning the helpless vampire to the car hood.

'_That vamp was strugglin' under D. It's like the vamp was havin' trouble gettin' away. Who the hell is this guy?'_

The vampire began to laugh at the mysterious man, "I don't know who you are but you have made a big mistake."

Demitri's eye go back to the lifeless void, "Where's the mayor's son?"

The vampire spit into Demitri's face and laughed again. Demitri wipes his face and bends down closer to the vampire, "Last chance, where is the mayor's son, demon?"

Again the vampire spits in Demitri face, "Go fuck yourself."

Demitri, wiping his face one more time, walks over to his trunk and opens the latch. He pulls out what Faith saw as a gun.

"That'll never work on him." Faith piped.

Demitri looks at Faith and for the first time, she was scared of the man in front of her. Even with all the things she has seen in her life, the look he gave her frightened her to the core. Even with his wet hair in his face, she couldn't help but shiver at the intensity his body language.

Demitri, without a word, turns back to the vampire pinned on the car.

"You know she's right. That shit doesn't work on me."

Demitri stands in front of the vampire and aims.

Bang… Bang… Bang… Bang…

Demitri stands motionless as the smoke from the gun exits the barrel. Faith stands their watching not knowing whether to run from the man in front of her or take him out. Her body would not function, it was like her body would not do what she commanded it do. She forgot that not only was she a vampire slayer but she was also human. She was scared stiff.

The vampire laughs at Demitri who is lowering his gun, "You can't kill me with bullets. I'm immortal, fucker."

Demitri slicks his hair back so the vampire can see the smile on his face, "You're only immortal, demon, until you are killed by either a stake to the heart, decapitation, sunlight…"

The vampire laughs until he feels something happening to his body. He looks down at his body and his eyes go wide. He watches as his body slowly turning to ash.

Looks back up at Demitri who looking down at him with the same smile, "Or if the weapon one is using is blessed."

The vampire looks at the gun and notices the hilt of the gun has a cross on the gun. The vampire looks back up at the man looking down at him one last as his head evaporates into dust. The rain slowly washes away the ashes of the hood of the car leaving the titanium stake. Demitri puts the gun back in the trunk and then grabs the stake.

Faith gains enough control over her body to finally speak, "Okay… Overkill."

Demitri doesn't respond and gets in the car. Faith quickly regains all control of her body and gets in the car. Wanting a response, she questions Demitri's tactics.

"What the fuck is your damage? What if you were wrong? What if these vamps were human? What if…"

"The vampire circling you had blood on his collar and it was fresh. And besides that has never stopped you before, Faith." Demitri said coldly as he turned to face her.

Faith's rage boils over and she grabs his shirt, "I've made my mistakes and paid for them. You, of all people, have no right to judge me. You think you're so righteous. You think that you can just kill anyone who stands in your way?"

Demitri grabs Faith's wrist and squeezes, making her let go of his shirt, "Whether they were they were human or vampire, I would have taken them out one way or another. Unlike Giles or your friends, human life means nothing to me. My job to hunt and kill whoever has a contract on them."

Faith feels the pressure of Demitri's hand wrapped around her wrist. Since she was Called, she had never felt this type of pain since her encounter with Kakistos. Then the words began to sink in and pulled away from his grip like his touch was acid, "You're a hitman?"

Demitri looks down for a moment and then puts his hand on the steering wheel.

"Are ya here to kill me?" Faith asks with a very child-like tone.

Demitri starts the car and then turns to the prone slayer, "If was going to kill you, I would have done it at the prison."

Demitri puts the car in gear and drives off.

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Faith just looks at the man next to her like fear. The man she thought was a lawyer is a cold-blooded killer. He is man who killed people without a second thought. She believed him when he said he wasn't there to kill her, but what was his motivation to help her.

'_Why do I crush on the wrong type of men?'_ She asked herself as she turns to her window watching the scenery past quickly by her.

"I never kill women and children. That was one of my conditions," were the first words Demitri had said since leaving the cop car. Faith turns to him noticing that he still hasn't taken his eyes off the road.

"And ya think that justifies your killing of innocent men with families?" Faith asked with anger.

"Justification has nothing to do with my profession. We kill whoever we are paid to kill. Do you feel justified in killing vampires?"

"Yes!" Faith said with pride.

"Then you are just as guilty as I am. Have you ever realized that the men, women, or children you slay have families?"

"Don't you try and put me in the same place as you. Those vampires don't care who they kill, just as long as they are able to get to their next meal. Vampires are evil be nature. A person becomes evil by their environment and upbringing."

"And that say what about you, Ms. Lehane? You killed the deputy mayor and then tried to pin it on Ms. Summers. When Harris tried to reason with you, you nearly strangled him to death. You killed countless people while under the wing of Wilkins. And you even took a contract from Wolfram & Hart to kill Angel. So you tell me, slayer… was that environment or upbringing."

Faith sits there shocked. Demitri made her relive every horrible thing she had done brief time in her life. She felt a tear roll down her eye as she defended herself, "You have no idea what type of pressure I was under. Yes, I fucked up and I paid the price. But that doesn't okay the fact that you kill people for profit."

"I'm not asking for forgiveness from you or anyone else. You slay vampires because it is you destiny… I slay any man with a price on their head, human or not. We are not going to see eye to eye on this matter. You have your convictions… I have mine. But the question you need to ask yourself is do you trust me?"

Faith turns back to the window and says nothing. Demitri exhales and accelerates the car. Faith stares out the window, thinking about the argument. She was lost. She had no idea if to believe him or not. She knew from the way he talked to her, he was telling the truth. There was no hesitation in anything she said to her. Throughout her life, she had trouble trusting anybody until Angel fully came into her life. From that time on, she began to slowly chip away from the wall she had put so no one can disappoint her again. She knew that if she were going to trust him, she would have to talk to one person.


	5. Problems in Laguna Beach: Part 4

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Disclaimer: Joss Whedon owns and created all of the Buffy characters. I own the rights the original characters and this computer though.

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Watcher's Council Headquarters

Kitchen

June 16, 2007

6:59am

A light goes on in the kitchen and a child about seven years-old walks in holding a teddy bear. She has jet-black hair, piercing blue eyes and wearing some pajamas. She walks over to the refrigerator door and grabs the door. Before she opens it, Giles bumps into her with great force, knocking over the child.

"Blast it…" he yells as he falls over the prone girl. An arm quickly grabs him before he falls completely over. Giles looks up at his savior and recognized the face.

"Whoa there, guy. You almost smashed an innocent slayer before her prime."

The man pulls Giles up to his feet and young slayer grabs hold of the man leg. He looks down and smiles at the little girl.

"You've come home, Xander."

Xander picks up the little slayer and kisses her forehead, "Sure did, Elise. But I have a question for you?"

The little girl smiles, "What?"

"Why were you in the kitchen before everyone else?"

She acts like she thinking before she answers, "I was looking for Twinkies."

Xander gives a fake frown and then begins to tickle the little girl, "That's the right answer, sweetie." Giles can only stand back and watch as the man that he watched grow up was giving Elise the one thing the Xander didn't have… a father figure. Even with his missing eye, he still able to look you in the eye and make you feel like everything is okay.

"Where have you been?" Elise asks.

Xander looks at Giles for some help, but Giles just looks at him, 'Whatever, old man.'

Xander turns to the little girl, "I was in Australia trying to find potentials just like you. But the were none there."

"So the tracking system we created came up with a false lead?" Giles piped in.

Xander puts the little slayer down, "Well, finding a potential, yes but I found something else."

"What?"

Xander leans his back on the counter, "I found this town that was completely disserted except for a few locals talking about the end of days," Xander crosses his arms, "I thought they were just religious freaks until an earthquake hit the town, splitting it down the middle. It went from one part of the town to the other."

Giles gets close to Xander, "Why didn't you contact us?"

Xander backs away from Giles as much as he can, "Okay first, someone isn't vest fully clean this morning," Giles steps back, embarrassed, "and second, the earthquake was an isolated incident. I found no evidence of supernatural involvement."

Giles lets it sink in, "So, have you had any other visions since you last called?"

Xander is about to answer, when he hears feet falling quickly on the hardwood floor. Both of the men and the little slayer turn to find Buffy, with a stake in one hand and a hairbrush in the other.

"Buff, what were you going to do? Stake me then brush my hair?" Xander stated as he tried not to laugh.

Buffy realizing that she still had her brush in her hand, quickly dropped both items on the ground and rushed up to the one eyed White Knight and gave him a hug.

"I missed you." Buffy said as she squeezed harder.

Xander began to gasped for air as Buffy squeezed harder and harder, "Buff… I missed… you too… Air!"

Buffy let go of her friend and blushed. Elise walks over to Buffy leg and hugs her. Buffy looks down at the little slayer and pats her head, "Why don't you go up stairs and wake up Dawn. She'll be glad to hear Xander is back."

Elise nods her head and runs out of the kitchen, leaving the veteran's in the kitchen, "So what did you find in Australia?" Buffy asks as she sits on a stool next to the counter.

"It was strange, really. I found this old…" Xander's story was cut off by Giles' cell phone. Giles quick goes in search of the small phone. Not finding it immediately he exhales with frustration and quickly leaves the two friends to wonder who was calling.

Giles walks out the backdoor to stop the sound from reverberating within the mansion. He finally gets the phone out of his pocket.

"Rupert Giles speaking…" he says slightly out of breath.

("Giles?")

"Who is this?"

("It's Faith.")

Giles nearly drops the phone. This was the first time he had talk to her since the destruction of Sunnydale, "Hello, child. It's good to hear your voice."

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North Coast Highway

Laguna Beach, Ca

June 16, 2007

12:12am

Faith leans against the car as Demitri stands by the edge of the highway. A sad smile creeps up her lips as the Watcher babbles on and on, "Hey, G… calm down… everything is fine…" Faith looks across at Demitri, "For now anyway."

("So how are things out there in California?")

"Five by five, so far… We are heading to a vampire hive here in town. But that's not the reason why I'm calling."

("What is it, dear?")

"Who's this Demitri guy you sent here?"

There is silence on the other line a moment; ("He's a friend of mine from a while ago. Why do you ask?")

Faith rolls her eyes, "Giles, the man is a fuckin' hitman. When were you going to tell me this?"

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Giles moves the phone away from his mouth an curses under his breath, _'How much do you did you tell her, you daft prick.'_

He quickly puts it back, "Faith, all the things he has done in the past is just that… in the past. For every horrific thing he has done in his life, the man is bound by a code of ethics that neither you nor I can comprehend. He is a good man by nature but the things he has seen in his life are… to say the least, events that would make us go insane."

There is a pause, like Faith was contemplating the argument Giles had given her, ("But Giles, you should have seen the way he killed this vampire we ran into. The word 'overkill' doesn't do it justice.")

Giles exhales, "Yes, his style is a tad bit unorthodox but remember, Faith, your style mirrored his own at one time."

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Faith looks down her feet, "What is this, "This Is Your Fucked Up Life." Look, G, thanks for the guilt trip, but I'm serious. This guy's vibe is changing every second. One minute he's Don Juan and the next, he's the Terminator. I don't get it."

("Your generation and its metaphors… How to explain this…") Giles pauses as he collects his thoughts, ("Demitri is very emotionally handicapped individual. Yes, he can go from hot to cold very quickly but not without a purpose. He possibly treated you the way he did because his normal persona would not allow you to trust him otherwise.")

Faith quickly looks at Demitri who has not moved an inch since she got on the phone, "Giles, can I trust him?"

("You can trust him with your life… I trusted him with mine…")

Faith looks closer at Demitri and then back to the ground, "Giles, you really know how to talk to a girl…"

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("…you know that")

Giles blushes, "Thank you for the compliment, Faith. Now, is there anything else you would like to know?"

("When was the last time you talked to Wood?")

"He went to Brazil to find more potentials. He left about three months ago. That was the last time anyone had seen him, really."

There is a pause, ("Oh… okay. Well, if you see him let him know that I'm okay.")

A sad smile creeps up Giles' lips, "If we see him, I will let him know."

(Later, Giles…) and with a click of the phone, she hung up. Giles closes his phone and sighed. Giles walks into the kitchen with a sad face, that didn't go unnoticed by either Xander or Buffy.

"What's wrong? Was it that Demitri guy?" Buffy piped up.

"Who's Demitri?" Xander questions.

Buffy looks at Xander, "Later," and then turns her attention back to Giles.

"It was Faith, Buffy. But before you start asking questions, let's head to my study. Would you mind?"

Xander raises his hand, making Giles exhale with frustration, "We're not in high school, Xander. What is it?"

Xander slowly lowers his hand, "When did we establish communication with Faith again?"

Giles rolls his eyes and walks away from the young man and his slayer.

Xander shrugs and they follow Giles, not knowing the outcome of the conversation.

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Faith closes her phone and walks over to Demitri. Like a gargoyle watching over a castle, he was looking out at the horizon. She looks down at his hands, intertwined with each other. His shirt still soaked from the flash of rain they had earlier. His hair was now pulled into a ponytail so she could see his eyes as the moon reflected off of them.

"Have I given you any reason to distrust me, Ms. Lehane?" Demitri asked to the prone slayer.

Faith was startled by the break of silence, "One side of me is telling me to run for the hills. But this other side of me… I don't know…" Faith sighs loudly, "Trusting people is not one of my best features, but Giles says I can trust ya…" Demitri turns to Faith, "so with you I will make an exception."

Demitri turns to the slayer and grins, "Believe me… you won't be disappointed."

Faith and Demitri return to the car and continue heading west on the highway.

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"So what's the stitch?"

Demitri pulls some paperwork from a side compartment and hands it to Faith, "Giles' contact reported that most of the disappearances were happening in this area," he places his finger on a map that Faith was holding, "He then pin-pointed the center of the activity."

Faith looks down at the map, "All the houses here are nothing but mansions," Faith's get wide, "Are you telling me that one of those rich bastards is a vampire?"

Demitri nods, "It's either that or a vampire had decided that since they killed the tenets living there, might as well reap the rewards."

"But with that many disappearances, there should be more than one vamp."

Demitri pulls out another piece of paper, "Not necessarily. It seems that the people of Laguna Beach has their very own serial killer right under their noses."

Faith begins to read the piece of paper, "Robert Samson, a known serial killer, was released from his life sentence last week as a result of pardon from the governor… What the fuck? How could this sick fucker get off like that?"

"It gets even better… Samson was under surveillance for two days before he himself disappeared. He was last seen at the local cemetery… at around 11:00pm."

Faith takes all of it in and then she looks at the day the report came in, "This was reported four weeks ago… what does this have to do with the missing people?"

"When I was talking to the receptionist at the hotel, she stated that this guy had been seen around town the day people started to go missing."

"So this guys a vamp?" Faith questioned.

Demitri shook his head, "He was seen during the day. And the first reported disappearance was during the day. He must be kidnapping people in the middle of the afternoon."

Faith looks through the paperwork, "But the reports say that that after the first day, most of the people are taken in the middle of the night including the mayor's son."

Demitri turns onto an intersection before answering; "If those reports are true we have a problem…" he pushes his foot harder on the acceleration, making the car roar with power.

Three minutes later… 

An extremely pale security officer is sitting on a stool in his booth, as he feels light on his face. He looks up to find a classic car sitting right at the gate entrance. He tries to get a better look at whose inside, when the headlights turn off along with the engine. He picks up a flashlight and walks over to the car. He clicks on his flashlight to find a beautiful raven-haired woman in the driver's seat.

"What can I do ya for, miss?" The security guard asked as he gave the inside of the car a once over with his light.

Faith looks at the security guard for a moment, "I'm a little lost, I'm trying to get back on the freeway. Could you help me?"

The guard looks around with his flashlight a little more before he looks at Faith again, "Sure, I have a map in my booth. I'm terrible at giving directions from memory, so if you wouldn't mind, could you follow me?"

Faith thinks about it, _'D, this better work.'_ Faith nods and steps out of the car. The security guard stands in awe at the flawless frame of the Slayer for a moment before heading to the booth.

Faith follows the man to the booth and sits down on the stool. The man pulls out a map and points, "We're right here and you want to go this way."

Faith bends down closer and her hair cascades down her shoulders to expose her neck. The security guard turns and looks at her neck. He begins to feel a hunger sweep over him as he concentrates on her neck. His face quickly goes demonic.

"So you're saying that this route should take me out of here?" Faith asks innocently.

The man was now breathing very heavy as he answers, "Your not going anywhere," and grabs the slayer by the neck.

Faith smirks, "That's what you think."

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Demitri walks out of the darkness to find the car stationed in front of a mansion both he and Faith thought was the vampire hive. He is now wearing a black duster trench coat and a jet-black fedora. His pant legs now have straps with stakes in the sheaths. In one hand he has a custom-made samurai katana and in the other was a cigarette. He walks up to the back bumper of the car when he hears crashing coming from the booth.

He drops his cigarette and proceeds to quickly move towards the booth, _'I should have done this. She's been out of the…'_

In mid-thought, he witnessed the security guard getting thrown out of the booth. And before it could hit the hood of the car, he turned to ash. Demitri watches in amazement as Faith walks out of the decimated security booth wiping herself off.

Demitri grins to himself, _'Never underestimate a slayer.'_

She walks over to Demitri and looks up at him, "Impressed?"

Demitri smiles slightly and walks back to the trunk, "My impression of you as never changed, Faith."

Faith inwardly smiles and follows Demitri. The trunk latch opens to the weapons already in plain view. Faith quickly grabs two knives, "Hello, boys… ready to make mommy happy?"

Demitri grabs two desert eagles and put them in his holsters. Demitri looks deeper into his trunk as Faith marvels at her knives. She then turns her attention down at a katana that was propped up next to Demitri. She puts the weapons on top of the car and grabs the katana. She begins to examine the katana and the first thing she notices how light the katana was. The slayer physiology gave her super human strength but she was still able to feel the difference in weighted objects. As she examined it closer, the hand guard had many Japanese symbols on one side and a yin/yang symbol that was created with a dragon and a tiger.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Demitri voice made her jump a little. She looks at him with some embarrassment and tries to hand it back to him. Demitri quickly puts up his hands, "Go ahead and take a look at the blade. I know you want too."

Faith slowly pulls the katana out of it sheath and examines it carefully. She finds more Japanese symbols on one side was a dragon and tiger intertwined etched into the metal. Faith is about to ask about the sword when she hears something in the distance. Demitri grabs the katana out of Faith's hand and quietly closes the trunk.

Faith and Demitri hid behind what was left of the booth and wait for whatever was coming their way.

They didn't have to wait long as two vampires came into view. Both of them still had dirt and mud on their clothing, making them newly risen vampires. They look around and notice that there was a car at the entrance gate and the security booth was destroyed.

One of the vamps grabs a remote and press a button the makes the gate open inward. They both inspect the car and then the booth.

"Where the hell is Brandon?" One of the vamps said as he looked under the car. Once he got up, he turned to his partner and noticed he was not moving.

"Jeff?" He questioned, as he got closer. He got in front of his partner and found him with his eyes wide and staring straight ahead of him.

"What's wrong, dude?" He smacks Jeff on the shoulder and to his horror he watches half of his friend slide off his body before both halves turn to ash.

The vampire jumps out of the way of his ash-ing friend, "What the fuck?" He turns to leave and has a gun pointed at his forehead. The darkness was covering his attacker's face but through his new eyes, he could see that his fedora was covering his eyes.

"Now this scenario can go two ways…"

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"So Rob… what are we going to do with this?" A vampire asked as he kicks the mayor's son. Robert and a female vampire are embracing and turn to look at the fledgling. Robert lets go of the woman and squats in front of the child with a look of sadness.

"It would be a shame to let this child go to waste, wouldn't Kathryn?" Robert asked as he continues to look at the child. The female vampire kneels down next Robert and grabs the child's chin.

"He is so innocent looking…" she roughly takes her hand away from the child and looks at Robert, "I bet he tastes sweet."

"I get first taste, dear…" Robert pulls a knife out from his boot and gently cuts the boy's cheek. He then licks the blood off the blade, "Tasty."

The child looks towards the far wall to find many bodies piled upon each other. He squeezes his eyes closed and began to cry.

Kathryn gets closer to boy and her face becomes rigid, "It will hurt only a little bit." She opens her mouth to reveal her elongated canines and starts dipping lower on the boy's neck.

Her decent was interrupted as the fledgling come stumbling through the front door. Rob jogs over to the fallen vampire and grabs him by the collar, "Don't you know it is impolite to disturb people when they are eating?"

The vampire looks up at his boss and begins to shiver with fear, "The Slayer's here."

Rob looks up with confusion when the fallen vampire turns to dust. "What the…" is all Rob could say when a fist hits him in the face. He staggers back, catching the attention of Kathryn. Rob feels his nose and finds it bleeding profusely. Looking for the person who hit him, he finds Faith standing in front of him with both knives in her hands.

"So your that psycho that went missing, huh? You don't look so scary." Faith said as sheaths her knives. Rob looks at the petite slayer and laughs.

"This is going to be fun," he pulls out his knife again, "I can't wait to feel you insides all over my body."

Faith cringes a bit, "Try me."

The man lunges for Faith when a bullet strikes his ear, making stop in his tracks. He starts running his hands over his ear and feels large piece that was missing. He looks past the slayer to find Demitri behind her with smoke coming out of the barrel of his gun.

"YOU SHOT MY FUCKIN' EAR OFF, YOU MOTHERFUKA!" Rob screamed. Faith smirks at the man in front of her.

"Oh, you thought I was comin' here without some back up?"

Rob holds his ear and begins to bark orders, "Frankie, get her…" He hears no response and turns to find no one behind him. He looks confused and then with a revelation, he squeezes his eyes shut before looking down on the ground. He finds an ash pile where Frankie was standing.

Kathryn also looks down at the ash pile and then up at Faith. Then, with superhuman speed, tackles Faith into the other room, leaving Demitri and Rob alone. Demitri turns to watch Kathryn and Faith tumble on the ground, before he turns his attention back at Robert.

Robert starts tossing the knife from one hand to the other, "I'm gonna cut ya in half, boy!"

Demitri carefully places his katana down on the ground. Then slowly takes off his trench coat and then his fedora, giving the serial killer a good look at whom he's about to face. Demitri closes his eyes and starts to snicker.

"They said that you had a talent for frightening your victims with just one look," Demitri opens his eyes and a blood red light emanated from them, "Do I frighten you?"

-------------------------------------------------------------

Faith and Kathryn tussle on the ground until the vampiress kicked the slayer off her, knocking her against a wall. Kathryn quickly gets to her feet and rams Faith further into the wall. Faith falls to the ground gasping for breath as the vampiress looks down at the fallen slayer.

"I've never killed a slayer before…" she grabs Faith by the throat and lifts her over her head, "Well, there's always a first for something."

She slams Faith's lifeless body down on the ground, creating an impact crater. Faith grabs the vampiress legs and trips her, smacking her head on a thick slab of concrete protruding out of the floor. Faith slowly gets up off the ground and notices blood on the floor. She quickly realizes it her blood and begins to looks for the source. She feels the side of her face and to her shock, she finds a gash next to her eye.

"You fuckin' bitch!" Seeing that blood seemingly set her off and she starts kicking Kathryn in the abdomen. After five kicks, Faith picks up the battered vampire and then roundhouses her to put and exclamation point on the fight. Kathryn goes flying into the next room. She lands next to Demitri's katana and coughs up blood on impact. She stares daggers into Faith and try to grab the weapon. Faith's eyes widen then throws one of her knives into the vampiress hand, which were inches from the katana.

The vampiress screams out in pain as smoke begins to bellow out of the wound.

'If I only had these weapons a few years ago…" Faith thought as she advanced towards the prone vampire. Faith gets to Kathryn and keels over the defeated vampire. She starts punching the vampiress face and doesn't stop until her face is unrecognizable.

Faith pulls out the other knife and is about to cause the final blow, when she hears a scream. Faith turns around to see where it came from. All he could see was the small boy crouching in a corner but no Demitri.

The vampire takes the chance and grabs Faith's neck, "If I'm gonna die, your comin' with me." The vampire then uses the last bit of her strength and pushes both her and Faith to the ceiling. Faith gets the brunt of the force and has the wind knocked out of her. Kathryn twists her body enough for Faith to take all of the fall and places her knees in between them. The vampire lands on Faith's chest with sound of bones crushing under her skin. Faith, with jolts of pain flowing through her body, kicks the vampire in the back, knocking the vampire off of her.

Faith slowly gets up and looks the vampire in the eyes. Kathryn looks at the rogue slayer with confusion, "Why won't you just die."

Faith smiles a little bit, "Haven't you heard?" Faith coughs and a droplet of blood runs off her lip, "We don't die… We multiply!"

Kathryn screams and runs towards Faith. Faith closes her eyes, preparing for what might be the end…

Faith then hears the sound of gagging coming from the vampire in front of her. She opens her eyes slightly and then quickly snaps them open. Kathryn is standing in front of her holding her neck, with blood pouring out of her mouth. Faith takes a closer look at Kathryn's neck to find a stake lodged.

Faith turns to find Demitri leaning against a pillar with his arms crossed. Faith, with her last ounce of strength, grabbed the vampire's head and smashed her face down on the floor.

Faith slowly got up and limped over to Demitri, "You know you could have intervened at anytime, you know."

Demitri just nodded and the beat down woman looks back at the vampire, "Where's her boyfriend?"

"He's been taken care of." Demitri said as he placed his trench coat over Faith.

"Good," was the last thing Faith said before she passes out. Demitri quickly caught her and gently places her next to the pillar. Demitri looks around the living room to find the mayor's son. He finds the boy next to turned over couch holding his knees, rocking back and forth.

Demitri walks over to the boy and crouches next to the boy and looks at the boy, "What's your name, son?"

"Bobby…"

"My name is Demitri and I'm here to take you home, Bobby. Is that okay with you?"

Bobby slowly nods his head and stands up. Demitri does the same and extends his hand out to the boy. Bobby pauses for a moment then grabs a hold of Demitri's hand. As they walk towards Faith, Bobby stops and turns towards the far wall, "What's going to happen to him?"

Demitri turns to what Bobby was talking about, "He will never hurt another person again."

As they get closer to Faith, Demitri let's go of Bobby's hand and picks up an unconscious Faith. Bobby picks up Demitri's hat and presented it to him, "I think this is yours?"

Demitri looks down and smiles, "You hold it for now." Faith, while Demitri's attention was on the little boy, had wrapped her arms around Demitri's neck.

Demitri feels the shift of weight and looks at Faith, who is sound asleep. Bobby catches Demitri looking at her, "Is that your wife?"

Demitri looks at Faith for a moment longer and then down at the boy, "No, she's not. But she is a good friend of mine."

The boy nodded and led they way out of the mansion with Demitri walking closely besides him. As the three of them passed the destroyed security booth, Demitri and Bobby hear a screech coming for the home. Bobby stops in his tracks while Demitri continues forward. The child turns slightly to the house and then back to Demitri, "Did you hear that?"

Demitri doesn't answer and continues towards his car. Bobby shrugs and quickly catches up to Demitri. Once at the car, Demitri places Faith in the passenger seat and turns to the child.

"Now I need you to get into the car… I will be taking you home shortly. Can you promise me that you will stay in the car?"

Bobby quickly nods his head and gets in the car. He watches as Demitri makes a trip back into the mansion.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Kathryn has tears in her eyes as she looks up at the wall in front of her. Her face is extremely pale, even for a vampire. Her entire lower body is covered in blood from not only her mouth but from a stake protruding through her neck. With her last bit of strength, she screeches into the night as she pulls out the stake. She is about to give up when she finds a body on the pile that she and her lover made. She crawls to the body slowly and to her amazement, the body still has a pulse. Kathryn, quickly and painfully, bends down to feed off the body. She is about to sink her teeth into the body's wrist, when she hears footsteps behind her.

"_Only be sure that you do not eat the blood… for the blood is the life… and you may not eat the life with the flesh… _You know ever time I hear that quote, it reminds me of your kind," Demitri states as he walks towards the fallen vampire.

Kathryn turns to find Demitri, with katana in hand. She tries to talk but the pain is too intense. She points up at the wall. Demitri looks up at the wall to find an extremely pale Robert Samson, pinned to the wall with four stakes. His neck has been visibly broken and his tibias are just as visible.

"Oh, he's very much alive. A vegetable… but alive. I normally just take out my victims but I thought that it would be too much of an easy exit for me just to kill him. Now he will live out his days drooling from the mouth in mental institution."

Demitri turns his attention back to the weak vampiress on the ground, "Now, I want answers and I want them now." He grabs her blouse and lifts her to his eye-level.

"Why have the vampires begun to resurface?"

She looks into Demitri's eyes and they have turned completely black. She begins to say something when Demitri feels a jerk in her body. Demitri looks in her eyes and see fear… true fear.

"Puzzle box…" was all Kathryn was able to get out before her entire body turned to ash. Demitri looks ahead of him to find a short guy in a leather trench coat and a fedora in the shadows. Demitri looks closer and finds a crossbow in his hands.

"Since you did my job for me, I am obliged to ask you who you are."

The short man steps out of the shadows to reveal more of his person. Under the trench is a very loud Hawaiian shirt and very small horns on his forehead.

"The names Whistler… you must be Demitri Drake?"

Demitri continues to stare and the short man in front of him. He notices that this "Whistler" is not showing any fear, which is new behavior since this guy clearly knows enough about him, "How do you know about me?"

Whistler drops the crossbow to the ground, "How can not know about you. You… one of the most feared assassins in the world. Not to mention the fact that your real name means "The Tortured One."

Demitri, seeming unnerved by the revelation continues the conversation, "Seeming that you know a lot about me, why don't you cut to the chase. What do you want?"

Whistler walks up to Demitri and looks up at him, "My associates, the Powers That Be, are in the business of keeping the balance between good and evil."

Whistler begins the walk around Demitri casually, like doesn't have a care in the world, "And after those slayers not only closed the most potent Hellmouth in the world but that Wiccan activated all the potential slayers…" Whistler stops at Demitri's side, "…We just can't allow this imbalance to continue."

"You want something from me?" Demitri asked through gritted teeth.

"They told me you were smart," Whistler turns to Demitri, "It simple really. Whatever deal you made with that so-called Watcher… break it. Abandon the slayer and go away."

Demitri looks down at the balance demon, "And if don't comply?"

Whistler grins, "Then you'll die like the rest of them."

Demitri walks away from the small demon, "You want me to go back on my word and turn my back on the slayers and their associates. And if I don't I will die just like them." Demitri stops, "What do I get out of this deal if I take it?"

Whistler looks triumphant, "The knowledge that you get to live another day… plus the sum of ten million dollars."

Demitri contemplates the deal that's in front of him. Whistler preparing to get the answer he wants, he turns back to pick up his crossbow when he feel pain coursing through his body. He slowly feels around to find a stake protruding through his chest. He turns to find Demitri standing there with a blank face.

"You have made a big mistake, kid," Whistler pulls out the stake and drops it to the ground, "These heroics are only gonna get you killed."

A slight grin comes to Demitri's emotionless face, "Is that a promise or just an empty threat?"

He looks down at the stake and then back at Demitri, "And you really think that would've killed me."

"No, but you should have seen the look on your face," Demitri teased, "I'm going to make this easy for you… walk away. Forget that we had this conversation… consider this a pardon."

Whistler starts to laugh, "Your not as smart as the Powers like to think you are. You had a shot to walk away from this without a scratch… now you'll be nothing but a casualty of war. Your mother would be so proud."

Once the words were said, Demitri pulls out his Desert Eagle and without looking, aims it at the balance demon. Whistler beings to laugh again, "You've already tried to kill me with a stake, what makes you think that will work? I'm immortal, kid."

Demitri answers without looking at him, "It won't…" lowers the gun and shoots Whistler in both kneecaps. Whistler quickly drops to the floor screaming in pain as Demitri walks slowly up to the downed demon. He squats down next to Whistler and his eyes quickly turn blood red, "…but you can't stand without your knees."

As Demitri dips closer to Whistler, his eyes light up with the same blood red color, "You tell the Powers That Be that the slayers are under the protection of "The Tortured One" and if they decide to continue this crusade, we will have to test their so-called immortality."

Demitri stand up and walks away from the prone demon. As he exits, he gives one last look, "By the way, the next time I see you, you are dead."

Demitri, with a smile, turns back around and leaves the mansion as Whistler looks on with a sinister look. He quickly stands up and runs at the door when he abruptly stops. Feeling another presence, he turns to the wall and notices Samson's finger twitching.

And with a smile, he walks up to the crucified serial killer, "I have a proposition for you…"


	6. Problems in Laguna Beach: Part 5

Disclaimer: Joss Whedon owns and created all of the Buffy characters. I own the rights the original characters and this computer though.

The Roosevelt Hotel

Hollywood, California

June 16, 2007

11:42pm

Faith wakes up with a jolt and sits up. She nervously starts looking around to find out where she is, _'Déjà vu.'_ She notices bloody gauze at the end of the bed then remembers all the things that happened earlier that night.

She quickly gets up and heads to the closest mirror. She gives herself a once over, relieved that the majority of her bruises have healed but she could feel a dull pain in her chest. She lifts her shirt to find the lower part of her chest was bandaged, _'He didn't do a bad job.'_

She gets closer to the mirror to inspect the gash that she had got over her eye. The wound had healed itself but there was a small scar, _'Don't I have enough scars?'_ She steps away from the mirror and pulls her wife beater down and heads the main room, where she finds Demitri on the couch reading something on a laptop.

Faith not knowing what to do stands behind the hitman as he reads.

"Good morning, Faith. Hope you slept well."

Faith feeling comfortable to move again, she situates herself right next to Demitri. She looks down at the coffee table and sees quite a few cigarette butts in an ashtray.

"You didn't go to sleep last night, did you?" Faith asks as she grabs a cigarette off the table.

Demitri shakes his head, "I normally sleep three days a week. Just a habit from my last profession. Can't break the habit."

Faith lights the cigarette and then looks around the room, "Where's the kid?"

"After I dropped you off here, I drove the kid back to Laguna Beach and dropped him off two blocks from the police station." Demitri answered without looking away from the laptop.

"How did you get me up here?"

Demitri looks at her for a moment, "I carried you up here."

"Didn't they ask you why you were carrying me up here?"

Demitri turns back to his laptop, "They were to afraid too. You still had blood all over you."

Faith became a little anxious at Demitri calm demeanor, "What did you tell them?"

Demitri paused for a moment and then closed his laptop, "I told them the truth… you got into a fight… and you won."

Faith stands up furious, "D, I just got out of prison and the last thing "we" need is a cop to start asking us questions."

Demitri, still unfazed, tries to calm down the woman in front of him, "Faith, they will not ask any questions or call the cops. Trust me."

Faith takes one last drag and puts out the cigarette. She looks at Demitri to find any type of false body language coming off of Demitri. After a few moments, she sits back down in a chair across from Demitri.

"So, what happened last night after I passed out?" Faith asks

Demitri just looked at her, _'How am I going to explain this to her?'_ He stands up and walks over to the patio. Faith noticed how tense Demitri got as he walked away from her. Faith watches how Demitri, whose normally is very sure of himself, is have issues with the question she asked. Demitri releases a large sigh and turns to Faith.

"Have you heard of a demon by the name of Whistler?"

'_Whistler… Whistler… where have I heard that name before?'_ Faith ponders the question in her mind until she remembers Angel talking about this guy, "I remember Angel talking about a Whistler back when I was in jail the first time saying that because of him Angel is who he is now."

Demitri gets pained look on his face and then he sits back down on the couch, "We need to find Angel… we have to find out more about this Whistler character and the Powers That Be."

"The Powers… those are the guys that told Angel to become a guardian." Faith perked at the mention of the PTB but once the word left her mouth she watched Demitri's face revert back to the emotionless face that she saw last night, "What's wrong?"

Before Demitri answered, heard his phone ring. He quickly puts the earpiece in and answers the cell-phone.

"Drake speaking… Hello Giles…"

Faith strains her ears to hear the conversation but she can't make anything that is being said on the other line. She watches as Demitri continues to stay emotionless as Giles continues to talk.

"Giles, you know I don't like having someone keeping tabs on me but…" Demitri looks at Faith right in the eyes, "but after everything I have seen, I'll make an exception."

Faith becomes conflicted after the look Demitri gave her. He was doing something he wouldn't normally do… for her. The conversation continues as Faith sits there, contemplating the look.

"Giles, ask Summers if she has ever heard of a demon by the name of Whistler… he's a person of interest."

Faith knocks herself back into the conscience world and, again, begins to listen intently.

"Also Giles… I need you to do a little more research on a puzzle box of mystic origins. I did a quick search on it and if it what I think it is…"

Silence is accompanied for a moment when Demitri nods his head, "Thanks Ripper… take care."

Demitri hangs up the phone and pulls the ear-piece out from his ear. He then stands up and heads for the bedroom and Faith, after a few minutes, follows. She finds him at the foot of the bed with his hands on his head.

"What did Giles want?" Faith timidly asked.

Demitri runs hands down is face then turns to Faith, "Giles wanted to let us both know that he is sending someone to assist me in getting you home," he looks back down at the ground, "It seems that Harris had a massive vision about the slaughter of hundreds of slayers. In the vision, you and Summers are crucified in front of thousands of vampires and monsters alike."

Faith sits on the floor and looks at Demitri, "Who is Giles sending?"

Demitri continues to look down at the ground, "He didn't say… he just let me know that they just boarded the plane and should be out here in the next fourteen hours."

Faith stands up and pulls Demitri out of the bed, "You know… we should do something tonight. It's been a while since I was in LA."

Demitri just looks at her and then grins, "I think I'm going to rest before we do anything… so I'll think about it."

Demitri flops down on the bed and closes his eyes. He feels a presence looming over him and finds Faith three inches away from his face, "Who said I was giving you a choice."

Demitri smiles and closes his eyes, "I'm going to sleep now… wake me up in a few hours."

Faith smiles and walks towards the door. Before exiting, she turns around, "Thank you for saving my life back at the mansion."

"You're welcome, Miss Lehane. Good night."

Faith smile gets wider and she walks out the room. Demitri smile disappears after a few minutes as he drifts to sleep.

* * *

_Somewhere in the Himalayas…_

Whistler walks into an old temple as four monks are carrying someone behind him. At the temples entrance, he allows the four monks to pass.

Whistler looks around the temple and smirks, "The Powers sure do know how to pick the place."

He walks in tow with the monks as they walk down a hall. Whistler takes a look at the engravings in the wall. Some of them are very violent in its storytelling. One shows a man, with a sword in one hand, looking to strike at a peasant as it holds its baby.

Whistler continues down the corridor until he reaches a set of double doors being guarded by to monks. As he gets closer to them, they tense up as like they are prepared to attack.

"Relax," Whistler say as he bows to the monks, "I'm here to see the Powers."

The monks look at each other and then at Whistler. They step aside and the doors open themselves. He walks in slowly to see three individuals looking down at him.

"Aren't the theatrics getting a little old? The monks… the temple…"

Whistler doesn't get a response at his attempt at humor towards the Powers That Be. So he continues…

"I have found your so called '_vessel._'"

The individuals look at each other before responding, "Was it damaged?"

"The Tortured One got a hold of him before I got to him." Whistler strolls over to a pillar and leans against it.

"The Tortured One… Did he take the offer?" One of the Powers asked.

"I warned him away from the slayers and their friends, but the man is not as smart as you thought. Oh… and get this… he stated that if try to attack the slayers in any way, he will test out your immortality."

Whistler chuckled until he didn't get a response from the Powers. He then looked at them with concern, "Who is this guy?"

"Nothing to worry about at the moment, Whistler. All will be explained at a later time. When will the vessel be ready?"

Whistler relaxes, "That Demitri guy did a number on him. Almost every bone in his body broken… and the man is almost clinically brain dead. The healing process is going to take awhile."

One of the Powers speak up, "What do you suggest?"

Whistler smiles, "Does your vessel have to be human?"


End file.
